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Universities : About Hungary

About Hungary

Hungary is a parliamentary constitutional republic in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, Slovenia to the west, Austria to the northwest, and Ukraine to the northeast. The country's capital and largest city is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and the Schengen Area. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.

On 23 October 1989, Hungary again became a democratic parliamentary republic, and today has a high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index.

Hungary is a popular tourist destination attracting 10.675 million tourists a year (2013).It is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second-largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grasslands in Europe (the Hortobágy National Park).

Area

Total

93,030km2 (109th)
35,919 sq. mi

Water (%)

0.74%

Population

2015 estimate

9,855,571 (88th)

Density

107.2/km2 (94th)
279.0/sq. mi

GDP (PPP)

2016 estimate

Total

$265.037 billion (57th)

Per capita

$26,941 (49th)

GDP (nominal)

2016 estimate

Total

$132.683 billion (58th)

Per capita

$13,487 (57th)

Gini (2014)

27.9
low · 16th

HDI (2014)

0.828
very high · 44th

Currency

Forint (HUF)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Climate

Hungary has a continental climate, with hot summers with low overall humidity levels but frequent rain showers and mildly cold snowy winters. Average annual temperature is 9.7 °C (49.5 °F). Temperature extremes are 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) on 20 July 2007 at Kiskunhalas in the summer and −35 °C (−31.0 °F) on 16 February 1940 Miskolc-Görömbölytapolca in the winter. Average high temperature in the summer is 23 to 28 °C (73 to 82 °F) and average low temperature in the winter is −3 to −7 °C (27 to 19 °F). The average yearly rainfall is approximately 600 mm (23.6 in). A small, southern region of the country near Pécs enjoys a reputation for a Mediterranean climate, but in reality it is only slightly warmer than the rest of the country and still receives snow during the winter.

Hungary is ranked sixth in an environmental protection index by GW/CAN.

Education

Education in Hungary is compulsory from 5 to 18 (16 for the students in grade 10 and below). At the age of six, pupils enter primary schools: the curriculum is divided into two phases of 4 years each. Afterward, they can choose between three different kinds of secondary education school: Grammar school (leading to academic higher education), secondary vocational school (leading to vocational higher education) and vocational school (leading to the world of work). The system is partly flexible and bridges exist (graduates from a vocational school can achieve a two years’ program to have access to vocational higher education for instance).
The Hungarian higher education is a dual system, divided into colleges (that usually provide bachelor's degrees) and universities (that usually provide master's degrees). Hungary's higher education and training has been ranked 44 out of 148 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report 2013/2014.

Languages

According to the 2011 census, 9,896,333 people (99.6%) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (99%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a second language. Hungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to any neighboring language and distantly related to Finnish and Estonian. English (1,589,180 speakers, 16.0%), and German (1,111,997 speakers, 11.2%) are the most widely spoken foreign languages, while there are several recognized minority languages in Hungary (Croatian, German, Romanian, Romani, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian).